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1.1Philosophy count nounA property or group of properties of something without which it would not exist or be what it is.

‘Locke's scepticism about our ability to penetrate to the real essences of things’

‘Do essences (or properties in general) exist in the physical world?’

‘The unnamed philosopher was indeed Locke, according to whom real essences made a thing what it was; it consisted of an item's internal structure.’

‘As he later puts it, the study of categories is a study of essences, based in essential insights about the types of meanings and correlative types of things.’

‘That is, items in all the categories are definable, so items in all the categories have essences - just as there is an essence of man, there is also an essence of white and an essence of musical.’

‘Whereas the immediate explanation of the actuality of Aristotle's substances lay in what they were essentially, that was not the case with Avicenna's essences, for their status was that of the merely possible.’

2An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter and used for flavouring or scent.

‘vanilla essence’

‘The Arabs recognized and refined these processes in the early Middle Ages, using them to make elixirs, perfumes, and medicines by extracting the essences from fruits and flowers.’

‘It includes a variety flavoured with rose essence and sugar.’

‘When cool, mix the gelatine into the mixture slowly with the vanilla essence.’

‘The secrets to the supple skin and healthy hair found on the islands: native plant and herb essences.’

‘Beat the butter, sugar, ground almonds and almond essence together.’

‘Stir in a few drops of peppermint essence.’

‘It's also rather delicious when you replace the vanilla essence with peppermint.’

‘Put some crushed ice into a food processor and add the guava juice, lime juice, blackcurrant syrup and rum essence.’

‘Lightly whip the cream and fold this in, along with the vanilla essence.’

‘Cream butter and vanilla essence in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy.’

‘Last week she made a chocolate cake and sloshed a huge quantity of vanilla essence into it straight from the bottle.’

‘The addition of two drops of vanilla essence in the glasses masked the flavour of both the beverages.’